Alleba Politics

Last year, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced a moratorium on the execution of death row inmantes. Although I think it was politically-motivated and was done only to please the Catholic Church, I laud the move, albeit belatedly.

The death penalty was institutionalized, allegedly, as a deterrent to crime. However, it has been proved to fail as one. Simply put, criminals are not discouraged to commit crimes even with the possibility of death hanging over their head. Two of the reasons are probably the defective police and justice systems we have. Criminals can easily get away with crime while innocent citizens can also easily be convicted of a crime. Our justice system moves a a mind-numbing speed and does so with much carelessness. How many (moneyed and powerful) criminals have gotten away due to technicality? And how many innocent citizens are languishing just because the system is sometimes so anxious to prosecute for the sake of appeasing prominent victims or for the sake of a photo op? Remember President Arroyo’s promise to selctively lift the death penalty to give way to the execution of kidnappers to appease the Filipino-Chinese community? The fact that our criminal justice system is faulty and politicized counteracts whatever deterring effect the death penalty may have.

Moreover, the varied and countless obvious imperfections of our criminal justice system is a reason in itself for us to think twice about lifting the moratorium on the death penalty. Are we willing to risk the lives of countless innocent inmates?

I believe that justice is not attained through retribution nor in punishment. Justice can be attained through peace of mind. How can we sleep safely if we know that criminals are still out there lurking in every possible corner. Justice is not attained by killing convicted murders, whether actually guity or not. Justice is in the swift, unbiased system which protects us from the real criminals. Before we can put in place any effective crime deterring mechanism such as the death penalty, we must first put into place a justice system that would surely convict the guilty and protect the innocent, with minimal errors.